Friday, December 17, 2010

End of Sausage Casings Quest and How Sausage Making is Better than Twilight

And finally the sausage casings quest has ended. One of the perks of my husband working in downtown is, he can walk to Pike Place Market and gets the sausage casings at Don and Joe's Meats.

So this is what we had for breakfast brunch today. And it's neat how my husband actually enjoys helping me make the sausages.


Who would have thought that making sausages would be fun? And messy... perhaps it's the mixer attachment I have? I'm thinking, it'd be nice to have a meat grinder like this one. But my husband might faint if he knew about it..

As I prepared the sausage stuffer and slid the hog casing to the funnel, I didn't think I'd have any problems. Until, the hog casing starting to slide down real fast, and the casing popped! Good thing it was just hog casing, not something else, or someone might get the 9-month flu (sorry, just can't help it). 

I asked my husband who was watching Twilight on Netflix to come and help me. As for Twilight, he was just curious what's it all about. But 7 minutes into the movie, he decided that it wasn't worth his time. Sausage making, 1. Twilight, O. Suck to be you, Twilight!

As I was cursing because of the burst casings, he was so calm, trying to fix it. This is why we're made for each other. He has this calming effect, every time I panicked. Good thing my mom is still in town to help watch the baby, I can't imagine us being so dirty from handling the raw meat, have to go and hold our baby when she cries.

After weeks of not spending quality time with my husband (with a 2-month-old baby and 4-year-old boy?), funny how sausage making actually got us to chat about things that weren't kids related. Usually it was always "Hey Sam, the baby drinks about 3oz earlier!!!!! YAY!" or "Your son didn't go nap today". And due to not having anyone to babysit our kids, we haven't gone out on a date night for 4 years now!

I made the sausage based on Michael Ruhlman's ratio theory (get his book! It's really useful, I even get both hardcover AND Kindle version so I can bring it everywhere with me). And instead of using red pepper flakes, I used roasted, chopped red peppers plus the seeds. 

Now, he wants to make another batch of sausage. With habanero involved somewhere (haven't really thought about it again).



3 comments:

  1. Sausage making is beyond my ken. You are right about it being messy. I did it once and never repeated it! Then again, it could also be rewarding when family likes it. The sausages look great and delicious! I'll have them for breakfast anytime. Cheers!

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  2. I have made sausage, years ago, with the old fashioned meat grinder, that you can attach the casings to it. I bought the casings, from my local butcher. I must confess, it's a lot of work that I would not attempt again. It was all worth it, but a lot of work, when you can buy great sausage from your local meat market, freshly made!

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  3. @michelangelo: yes, it's fun because it was more like a family-time. Thanks for the compliment! :)

    @Elisabeth: to be honest with you, I wouldn't want to make it again, if it's not for the fun time we had making it. ;) Even my 4-year-old son had a blast!

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